--- title: Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound description: Stanford physicists led by Amir Safavi-Naeini directly observed individual phonons—quantum units of sound—making discrete energy jumps in real time within a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound | daily.dev og:description: Stanford physicists led by Amir Safavi-Naeini directly observed individual phonons—quantum units of sound—making discrete energy jumps in real time within a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1Uiy1lU4i.png og:image:alt: Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound **[The Quantum Insider](https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Stanford physicists led by Amir Safavi-Naeini directly observed individual phonons—quantum units of sound—making discrete energy jumps in real time within a microscopic mechanical resonator, published in Science. The team paired a long-lived resonator (able to vibrate for two milliseconds) with a superconducting qubit that repeatedly measured its vibrational energy state, detecting the exact moment it dropped from one quantum level to zero. This is the first real-time observation of quantum jumps in sound, following earlier demonstrations in trapped ions (1986) and photons (2007). The breakthrough could aid quantum computing error correction, since quantum jumps often represent computational errors, and could enable highly sensitive sensing applications such as detecting proteins within cells, in collaboration with Caltech researchers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What did Stanford researchers observe about quantum jumps in sound for the first time? Stanford physicists directly observed individual phonons, the quantum units of sound, making discrete real-time energy jumps inside a microscopic mechanical resonator. Led by Amir Safavi-Naeini, the team paired a resonator that vibrates for two milliseconds with a superconducting qubit that repeatedly checked whether the vibrational energy was at level 1 or had dropped to 0, pinpointing the exact jump moment. Findings appeared in Science. _daily.dev surfaces frontier physics research like this for engineers tracking quantum computing hardware progress._ ### Why does detecting quantum jumps in phonons matter for quantum computing error correction? In many quantum computing architectures a quantum jump represents an error, but pinpointing when these errors occur has been difficult. Detecting quantum jumps of sound in real time, as Stanford researchers achieved with a mechanical resonator and superconducting qubit pairing, marks a step toward identifying and correcting such errors, which could improve the reliability of fragile quantum states during calculations. _Follow daily.dev for updates on quantum error correction techniques as the field matures._ ### How long can the Stanford mechanical resonator vibrate and why does that matter? The microscopic mechanical resonator used in the Stanford study can vibrate, or ring, for two milliseconds, which is exceptionally long at that scale; a regular-sized tuning fork with the same relative capability would ring for several hours. This long ringdown time allowed hundreds of measurements during a single vibration, making it possible to pinpoint the exact moment a phonon's energy state jumped from 1 to 0. _daily.dev helps researchers stay current on hardware advances shaping quantum sensing and computing._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Frequency estimation by frequency jumps](https://daily.dev/posts/frequency-estimation-by-frequency-jumps-evi7qywle) · Nature · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Quantum simulator reveals how vibrations steer energy flow in molecules](https://daily.dev/posts/quantum-simulator-reveals-how-vibrations-steer-energy-flow-in-molecules-fbqz5fvz5) · Phys.org · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#quantum-computing](https://daily.dev/tags/quantum-computing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i"},"datePublished":"2026-09-18T09:25:26.675Z","dateModified":"2026-09-18T10:17:19.618Z","description":"Stanford physicists led by Amir Safavi-Naeini directly observed individual phonons—quantum units of sound—making discrete energy jumps in real time within a...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8d1722a3e6168f0637add060eefaf536?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8d1722a3e6168f0637add060eefaf536?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Quantum Insider","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Quantum Insider","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/7b14a6b34c1b464c9e8a88d9a0dac951","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"quantum-computing","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Quantum Insider","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Researchers Observe First Real-Time Quantum Jump in Sound"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/researchers-observe-first-real-time-quantum-jump-in-sound-1uiy1lu4i#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What did Stanford researchers observe about quantum jumps in sound for the first time?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Stanford physicists directly observed individual phonons, the quantum units of sound, making discrete real-time energy jumps inside a microscopic mechanical resonator. Led by Amir Safavi-Naeini, the team paired a resonator that vibrates for two milliseconds with a superconducting qubit that repeatedly checked whether the vibrational energy was at level 1 or had dropped to 0, pinpointing the exact jump moment. Findings appeared in Science. daily.dev surfaces frontier physics research like this for engineers tracking quantum computing hardware progress."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does detecting quantum jumps in phonons matter for quantum computing error correction?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"In many quantum computing architectures a quantum jump represents an error, but pinpointing when these errors occur has been difficult. Detecting quantum jumps of sound in real time, as Stanford researchers achieved with a mechanical resonator and superconducting qubit pairing, marks a step toward identifying and correcting such errors, which could improve the reliability of fragile quantum states during calculations. Follow daily.dev for updates on quantum error correction techniques as the field matures."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How long can the Stanford mechanical resonator vibrate and why does that matter?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The microscopic mechanical resonator used in the Stanford study can vibrate, or ring, for two milliseconds, which is exceptionally long at that scale; a regular-sized tuning fork with the same relative capability would ring for several hours. This long ringdown time allowed hundreds of measurements during a single vibration, making it possible to pinpoint the exact moment a phonon's energy state jumped from 1 to 0. daily.dev helps researchers stay current on hardware advances shaping quantum sensing and computing."}}]} ```